The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-04-21
TEppEn's ART TREASURES.
tstchings and Engravings Owned by
the Alabama Relative of Turner.
the EloNtaonleIN .4dUcrttaer.

the Alabama RELATIVE OF turner.
From, the Montgomery advertiser.
Thanks to the kindness of Dr. Mcdaniel,
80 Camden. / was enabled to visit the chill
[l,,en of Mr.. Topper and through their kind
ness was given every facility To judge
burners works i'll the house. The home is
a., attractive one with large flower yard
in front and an orchard and garden an
na~ad One is struck at once on enteMng
With the evidences of this great artistic in
beri+ance The walls of the hall way and
~ the narlor into which was ushered were
bunf with engravngs of a number of Turn
ar's more famous pictures, with their ia
miGar dreamy effects i'll aerial perspective
and their piles upon piles of massive ma
sonry. .... - A..
great artist himself, dressed in a fur great
coat, and looking diffidently, it seemed to
me. out upon the world. The month was
ono of extraordinary Sensibility and
reAnement, and | wondered as / looked
MON his face at the stories ! had
read of this mans physical hideousneSs and
,,ore Of his orgies with the trulls of Wap-
ming Over the mantel hung two small oils,
One landscape and the other marine.
recolIected that | had once looked upon
Turner's ''Slave Ship" and installing it for
a conv had abused it as an ugly daub.
C,hoat used to have his daughters nudge him
Of the opera, so that he should not fail to di-
iate Mt the proper moment. | moved warily
around the two little oils over the mantel
nrppared to dilate if it should prove an aus
ncfous occasion It was not, however.
'"They were painted by some English
relatives of ours" said Miss Topper; "of
the Turner branch, believe, but not by
Turner himself" and my suspense was over.
NDo Won paint at all" | inquired.
Oh no, not Bit" she laughingly an
swered.
did your father ever draw at ALP
She went quickly and brought small
piece of pasteboard with drawing in pen
Gil on it,
NV father did this when he was young
man. and before he came to America"
: II was a fairly well-executed picture of
the court house in his native town of South
Motion. He had given it when yet in Eng
land to woman friend of his. and when in
1872 he retured to his old home in search of
fortune he found his friend still possessed
of the little picture of the court house and
he begged it of her.
~ shall frame this and his little sign,"
said his daughter.
Turner's first drawings were mainly
architectural. and | wondered as I stood
there in the shadow of the tragedy that took
Samuel Topper out of the world whether if
fortune had been kind, and if he, too, had
y
whether there would not have been for us
now great Topper schools Of art, Topper
foundations, a Topper cult, statues of Tep-
per, lives of Topper and huge books of
criticism upon the art of Samuel Topper,
R. A. ] wish could have seen traces of
these possibilities in this sketch, and they
may have been there for ought I know.
Have you any oil paintings Of Turner's"
l asked Miss Topper
''NOnp whatever
Il will show you what we have and what
father priced most
She went to the bookcase in the corner of
the room, and from the bottom shelf she
drew out two large volumes bound in full
calf She carried them to the piano and
placed them ON it, One the backs were
printed in letters of gold ''Liber Studiorum."
Here was the result of so many years of ar
duous toll for Turner, spurred on by his
hunger for money and his emulation
Of Claude. / opened the books profanely
and looked through them. knew they
had no secrets for me-. .,. s.-
Can You tell me something about these
drawings asked appealingly.
mo; | must confess | can't
They were evidently a complete set of the
etchIngs and mezZOtints of the "Liber Stu
Gorun, over seventy in all. The frontis-
piece is Tyre at Sunset, etched by Turner's
own hand, the same that in Modern Paint
eers' is accorded such hearty praise The
body Of the work is made up Of an etched
outline on the one page with the completer
mezzotlntS Of the same subject on page
following. The etchings are done mainly by
turner and his name sometimes appears as
engraver. Most of the engravings the mez-
counts bore the name of Lucas or Turner
mot the artist
Miss Topper handed me in succession
copies Of Rivers of France. ~ and "Flnden's
al # rxl,i I,J
Illustrated by Turner. and these were his
own original editions. Some of the pages of
these volumes showed the effect Of the
damp air of the room where they had been
stored in neglect in London and left there
for years.
r. What value do you put on these, Miss
We have no idea what they are worth. y
them
NO; ne said often they may be worth
great many thousand dollars and they
may be worth nothing But it won't hurt
to keep them.''
one brought me catalogue he held in his
n nsll curing the days of the sale in London
ana IN which he had jotted down the prices
1Slnerent pictures brought when sold. |
dolud by reference to this that some of the
oillse eIcnlngs and mezzotints in the vol
Slnes OF "llber Studiorunl" had been sold
1or too and 80 and $50. These before me
T Tere completed set, over seventy of them.
iaHey cannot be worth less, / argued, than
a3hDoO' or $4,000, and they with these
gSCners are worth a great deal more than
s snS And they may be worth nothing
SAID Miss Topper.
ned could hang them out on my fence" he
o uSel 70 say, 'and nobody here would care
enough fol. them to take them"
tn, hese volumes will be for sale at some
t gine IA the near future 1t is to be hoped
uIey WI he kept on this side of the Atlantic.
J dru C Ina samuel Topper, who has given his
S Soa. 70 American soil, will be found to have
inc Ti' ' an instrument in permanently enrich
'outry i'0' '''1 Ia ooi OWN
THREE RICH STSTHps